Access policy

Access to ARC systems is supported by the University through Departmental subscriptions and income from Research Grants.

Initial Allocation

All new projects are set up with an initial 25,000 CPU hours (90,000,000 credits). This is to allow you to get your software/applications set and do some testing, benchmarking or even experimentation.

Please see the Accounting System page for details on how credit usage is calculated, and our page on Requesting Credits for details on requesting more credits (including charges where applicable).

Gaining Further Credits

1) Basic 'Free' Service

For 2015/16 Departments that do not contribute to the standard service are only entitled to use the Basic , free, service. Access to the standard service and priority service is via direct payment.

2) Standard Service

For 2015/16 Departments that have paid for access to the standard service for their users are entitled to unlimited use of the standard service. If you are not able to fund time via a Research Grant then please select this option. There is no limit on usage and no charge to the users.

To request time all we require is a brief proposal outlining the research with the details of the number of CPU hours required. Please send this to support@arc.ox.ac.uk

2) Priority 'paid for' Service

This is the preferred route for users who require sustained and long-term usage of ARC facilities. Purchasing time via a research grants gives users access to the priority job submission queues

Researchers who use ARC extensively and are writing grant proposals are strongly encouraged to add a directly allocated cost item for this purpose.